6.06.2005

Vatican City, Jun. 06, 2005 (CNA) - During a meeting with the pilgrims from the Italian Diocese of Verona, Pope Benedict XVI called on married couples to be witnesses of God’s fidelity. “You have come to be confirmed in the faith,” he told the pilgrims, who are celebrating the end of a three-year long diocesan synod, “and I, called just a short time ago to this serious duty, am happy to greet (you) ... and to encourage you in the commitment of giving a Christian witness in today's world.”

He said that in this diocese, as in so many others, “divorces and irregular unions have increased and for Christians this is an urgent call to proclaim and give witness to, in its entirety, the Gospel of life and the family” which “is founded on indissoluble matrimony. Notwithstanding the difficulties and social and cultural conditionings of the current historical moment, may Christian couples never cease to be with their lives a sign of God's faithful love.”